Origin

In his poem ‘Digging’ ( 1966), Seamus Heaney resolves to carry on the family tradition of digging the soil by ‘digging’ himself, not with a spade like his father and grandfather, but with a pen. The link between agriculture and writing poetry goes all the way back to the origin of the word verse, as Latin versus meant both ‘a turn of the plough, furrow’ and ‘a line of writing’. The idea here is that of a plough turning and marking another straight line or furrow. Versus is also the source of versatile (early 17th century) and version (Late Middle English), and it is based on Latin vertere ‘to turn’, from which vertebra (early 17th century), vertical (mid 16th century), vertigo (Late Middle English), and many other words such as adverse (Late Middle English), convert (Late Middle English), and pervert (Late Middle English) ‘turn bad’. Vortex (mid 17th century) is closely related. Versed (early 17th century), as in well versed in, is different, coming from Latin versari ‘be engaged in’.